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What is considered a regular bowel movement for a raw fed cat?

Khari
January 14th, 2009, 10:56 AM
I originally posted this under Cat's Health but would like some input from fellow raw feeders with your experience, thanks!

Can I please get some insight into what is a normal bowel movement for cats. I hear different regularities and I get concerned. Some people say anything longer than 1-2 days is a real concern. Some say 3-4 days is fine. My cat had chronic diarrhea on commercial pet food for years. Since being on a mostly all raw diet his stools are back to normal. At first on the new diet he was going every 1 to 2 days. Now 4 months on a prey model diet - he sometimes does not go for 3 days. I am afraid for him that it will start to get longer. I give him a little bit more liver and fat to no avail. I have given him pumpkin, baby squash with no luck in increasing the frequency. If I give him Laxatone this usually helps but I do not want him to become dependent on this. Can you guys tell me the frequency of your cats and if I am over reacting....thanks!

Love4himies
January 14th, 2009, 11:00 AM
Are his stools very hard and whitish? If so, maybe he is getting too much calcium???

Khari
January 14th, 2009, 11:07 AM
No, it is a bit dark, one piece 3" long. Not thick. One end is spongey and the other end is kind of soft (but I think that may be from the laxatone I give him on the 3rd day to make sure he has a stool). He doesn't seem to be straining (although he usually has the stool when I am at work) and he doesn't seem different in any other aspect...:shrug:

Khari
January 14th, 2009, 11:19 AM
He eats mostly all raw (prey model). Sometimes he does get fussy at a meal and will not eat his meat chunks without a smear of canned. He doesn't get much bone either....He gets liver every 3 days and a few drops of salmon oil everyday or so.

bendyfoot
January 14th, 2009, 12:41 PM
He should be getting 10-15% bone weekly. Chicken necks and backs are easily managed by most kitties.

Love4himies
January 14th, 2009, 12:43 PM
Will he eat his raw if there is a bit of pumpkin or baby butternut squash smeared on it?

Khari
January 14th, 2009, 12:51 PM
He gets roughly 5-10% bone which is the norm for a prey model diet. I have tried pumpkin and it didn't do much (he really doesn't like it)...I gave him baby squash food last week and yesterday started to try and get him to eat baby peas food (it has more fibre than the squash). This morning I added some water into the baby peas and he lapped it up - yay! We'll see if this helps to produce some more frequent stool!

growler~GateKeeper
January 16th, 2009, 03:47 AM
My grrl Duffy is eating ground raw & she usually goes every 2-3 days

Khari
January 16th, 2009, 06:48 AM
When she doesn't go for 3 days you are not concerned? I am trying to get a feel on what is normal for raw fed cats :) So, hopefully I can stop stressing :eek: The peas seem to be helping - he has had a stool for the last 3 days...

growler~GateKeeper
January 17th, 2009, 12:09 AM
When she doesn't go for 3 days you are not concerned?

She usually goes every two days, if it was longer than 3 days I would be very worried. I know with the raw food she is using more of the nutrition she's eating therefore she has less waste to excrete. In her life my grrl has never had any issues with going, until she was diagnosed with kidney failure & she began having problems regulating the water level in her poop causing constipation from very dry poop which led to her vomiting while straining. She now gets salmon oil twice a day and has no problems since being on it.

Khari
January 17th, 2009, 06:42 AM
Okay, so when she doesn't go for 3 days you are not super concerned. But after that you would be, gotcha - thanks!

growler~GateKeeper
January 18th, 2009, 02:41 AM
Every cat/dog/human is different so 2 or 3 days for my grrl may not be ideal for your guy :shrug: you know your cat & his normal habits. Be sure you are keeping an eye out for signs of distress & if you are not comfortable with the length of time it has taken for him to go, by all means contact your vet :)

Khari
January 18th, 2009, 09:51 AM
:thumbs upEvery cat/dog/human is different so 2 or 3 days for my grrl may not be ideal for your guy :shrug: you know your cat & his normal habits. Be sure you are keeping an eye out for signs of distress & if you are not comfortable with the length of time it has taken for him to go, by all means contact your vet :)

I agree - every cat is different but the reason I asked the question was to get a general feel of what people's cats bowel movements are on an all raw food diet. Bishop was going every day when he was being transitioned to raw (raw and canned food mixture), but now that he is on 100% raw he sometimes doesn't go for 3 days. I am not familar if there is a difference in bowel movements on raw and on a commercial pet food.....

On a lighter note - he has been going almost every day for the last week. I have been getting more water into him and giving him a bit of baby peas food :thumbs up

Eclecticats
March 25th, 2010, 06:19 AM
I feed my cat a raw diet and she moves her bowls every 2 days, sometimes 2 days in a row and sometimes she skips 2 days.

I do have a question.
If they say that you can give your cat 1/2 teaspoon of baby food squash
twice a week for hairballs, how do you keep the baby food from spoiling? It says on the jar that once opened, you may refrigerate for 2 days only. This tells me that I cannot give my cat this baby food. What do I do take a teaspoon out and throw the rest away.
Very confusing as to how people are feeding their cats baby food squash.

sugarcatmom
March 25th, 2010, 07:19 AM
What do I do take a teaspoon out and throw the rest away.
Very confusing as to how people are feeding their cats baby food squash.

You can freeze tsp-sized portions on a plate and put them in a baggie for later use.

Eclecticats
March 25th, 2010, 04:33 PM
If you have freezed it, have you had problems with it getting watery?
This is the response I received from Beechnut Baby Food:

Thank you for writing to Beech-Nut. Freezing our baby food is not
recommended because the liquids separate from the solids upon thawing and
the product becomes like a sponge. The foods may become
watery; and undesirable (unsightly) as our baby foods are produced without
stabilizers.

growler~GateKeeper
March 27th, 2010, 12:26 AM
If you are only giving the butternut squash there should be no problem as there is only 2 ingredients butternut squash & water. I have frozen & thawed the Heinz Organic butternut squash babyfood with no issues, I prefer to use ice cube trays to freeze it in as it keeps it a bit more compact than a plate & easier to transfer to a freezer bag.

Twocents
April 6th, 2010, 07:09 PM
Hope this helps.

See about half way down this page on Dr. Pierson’s Catinfo.org under Making Cat Food:

http://catinfo.org/makingcatfood.htm

“Even though bones are the most natural and optimal source of calcium, one of the most common problems that people encounter in their cats when starting to feed a raw diet is constipation. Constipation may become an issue if too much bone is added but constipation may also be a result of introducing a diet that is very foreign to an intestinal tract that has only dealt with dry food in the past and now needs time to adapt to a new diet, that is, if it can adapt.

Please keep in mind that cats do not pass feces in the same volume, consistency, and frequency that a cat on a dry food diet does. I have many people write to me with the worry that their cat is "constipated" because they are not passing stool every day. This is not necessarily a sign of constipation. Cats on a low residue diet like the one on this webpage will not usually pass stool every day. There is very little waste contained in this diet and so the volume of feces will be less. Also, the feces of a raw-fed cat is often dry and crumbly.

This is a picture of feces from 2 separate bowel movements from my cats. In other words, an average bowel movement from my cats is half this volume. I crushed 2 of the fecal pieces to show how dry and crumbly it is. Feces from a raw-fed cat also has very little odor!

Signs of constipation include straining and unable to pass feces, or crying in the litter box and acting distressed.

So how do we know how much is "too much" bone? The last thing any of us wants to deal with is a constipated cat but this is the tricky part of the equation and varies from cat to cat.

When the typical prey of wild cats is analyzed, there is a fairly wide range in the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio in these prey animals so we do have some leeway when dealing with this issue…”

:thumbs up

Twocents
April 6th, 2010, 07:24 PM
Cat constipation, lactulose info

http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=880916

I had no luck giving pumpkin or squash - cat got sick of it.